The newly released Blu-ray for “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” has over 90 minutes of special features, including an alternate opening and a different ending. A “Heroes” featurette also shows footage of Pete Davidson in the sound booth improving on some of Mirage’s inappropriate lines of dialogue. In “Transformers” lore, Mirage has a rich backstory that’s not fully explored in the prequel. On Cybertron, Mirage was a wealthy high roller with a great deal of swag. Here on Earth, Mirage took on characteristics similar to Brad Pitt’s alpha male in “Fight Club,” a character who turns out to be somewhat of a mirage himself.
In the featurette, Gary Brozenich shares how Steven Caple Jr. first envisioned the character before Davidson officially stepped in, saying:
“The first thing that Steven referred me to was the Tyler Durden character from ‘Fight Club.’ Slightly schizophrenic. You never know what he’s going to say. He’s probably going to say something inappropriate. But he’s really kind of a nice guy. He’s the friend that you wanna have but you don’t always wanna have around.”
Once Davidson added his own personal take and some of his own dialogue, Mirage became even more unpredictable. But the Autobot spy is still a sidekick and friend to Anthony Ramos’ character, Noah Diaz.
Tyler Durden was much more than that. Although he’s a product of Edward Norton’s character’s imagination, Durden was the underground spokesperson for a despondent generation, not an oversized toy in a “Transformers” movie with a storyline that didn’t exactly turn out the way it was advertised. It’s strange then, for the director of “Rise of the Beasts” to draw on “Fight Club,” especially after Davidson’s voice acting completely changed the character. If, however, Paramount ever made a “Transformers” movie based on Chuck Palahniuk’s seminal book and David Fincher’s remarkable film, that is a summer blockbuster I could definitely get behind.